Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Review: Prophecy of the Sisters

Prophecy of the Sisters
By Michelle Zink
Publication date: August 2009

My review:

Twins Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just buried their father and now they and their younger brother Henry are alone in the world with only their Aunt Virginia as their guardian. Lia also relies on her relationship with James, the young man hired by her father to organize his library. Lia and Alice have grown apart over the years so when Lia discovers a strange mark growing on her wrist she does not tell her sister. Then James finds a hidden book in her father's library that holds a strange prophecy about twin sisters. Could it have something to do with the mark, Lia's dreams, and Alice's disturbing behavior?

The Prophecy of the Sisters reminded me a lot of Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty. Both books feature paranormal fiction in a historical setting with the female protagonist discovering that her mother had secrets and that she herself has unusual magical abilities. In The Prophecy of the Sisters, each generation in Lia's family, twin girls are born and both girls have a role to play involving souls trying to enter the world. The sisters have varying degrees of magical ability and they travel to the Otherworld using a kind of astral projection. 

Lia is a likeable character who genuinely cares about her family and doing the right thing while Alice is just creepy and selfish. Any scene with Alice in it gave me goosebumps and while Lia still loves her sister I only found Alice to be evil and unredeemable. The romance between Lia and James is only a small part of the story, which I did not mind at all. The mysteries surrounding the prophecy and Lia's part in it were far more important. There is a gothic feel to the writing that I enjoyed. The Prophecy of the Sisters incorporates mystery, magic, and a little bit of romance into a story that is at its heart about family. The ending left me anticipating the sequel, Guardian of the Gate, which I thankfully had on hand. I look forward to seeing how Lia will come to terms her part in the prophecy and her relationship with her sister.

Readalikes: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

4 comments:

  1. Nice review! I'm still reading this one (and yikes, totally agree that Alice is just completely creepy). =)

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  2. Fab review! I've got this one to read and can't wait to get to it!

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  3. Great review. I have this on the sequel on my TBR shelf, which just keeps getting fuller and fuller. I really need to read this.

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  4. Nice review, I loved this series so far as you know.

    Thanks for similar readalikes, I want to try Once a Witch

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